The Best And Worst Of WWE NXT 2/12/14: Pinkie Promises

– Here’s a link to this week’s episode. If it’s anything like last week, it’ll start off as a Hulu Plus exclusive and then get shuffled over to the free service. Worst case, look for it on Daily Motion.

– Sharing this column makes you a Forever Bro. Be that for me, please.

– If you’re new to NXT, you can check out previous weeks’ columns here. If you’d like to go back even farther, we’re doing a retro recap of NXT season 1 here. Justin Roberts gets choked with his tie like 3 1/2 years ago, so look out for that.

Divas tag was great. The only weird thing to me is why Alicia held on in the Emma Lock as long as she did. Her partner’s abandoned her, why not say “eff this” and tap out the second you’re put in a hold?

God help me, when Cesaro-Zayn 4 was announced, I started chanting “HHH!”. NXT is weird.

Seems like Renee’s been dropping heavy hints that she’s been practicing writing Regal instead of Young in her journal. At least, I’ll take that as an explanation over our beautiful Renee Paquette having been Stepforded by Stanford.

I fear, and I really hate to say this, is that the reason why we’re more likely to get Renee acting the way she is now is because they want their announcers to act a certain way, especially with the wwe network coming. NXT is going to change. Will it be the same now that its live?? Who knows?? Remember, they’re going to try to get NXT to market all of their fans, so they are going to dumb down the product.

I haven’t seen anything to suggest that all NXT episodes will be live after ARRIVAL. My guess is that it will continue being taped, but once every 2-3 months a live episode will be shown that will serve as an NXT PPV.

It’s too bad the Second City Saint is dead, because a 2014 reboot of the SES with Parker as Punk’s right-hand man actually sounds pretty fun. I’m just shocked they sent him out there to do a bad Adam Sandler impression so many times when he had this in him.

I’d like to add a best to Aiden’s titantron/backdrop that looks like a tiered opera house. From a wide angle, it almost looks as though he’s performing from a Bioshock theater. A great touch by the Full Sail art department.

1. The Sami and Cesaro conversation is my favorite promo since that time Daniel Bryan refused to slap John Cena; the kick to the injured knee was a beautiful touch. The whole thing got even more pumped about NXT Arrival.

2. CJ Parker turn was pretty good, i just wish when he said “i should be booing you” to the crowd, he would actually boo them, that’d be funny.

We should. It is during the free trial week, right? We can all get it, watch Arrival, and then those of us who don’t want it just cancel out and move on. Who doesn’t wanna be with this group of people while Zayn verse Cesaro 4 is on? Though I have to admit, I doubt anyone tears their eyes away from the match for a second to comment in the thread!

Cesaro pegging him with the microphone after kicking him in the knee was great. He is basically what Alberto Del Rio should be, an ass kicking jerk who thinks he’s better than everyone else because he is.

Vince suggests you put the CM Punk figure on the top shelf of your toy collection just behind your Cena figure, but then take him down when your Drax figure arrives and tell him you’re gonna let the family dog chew on him for 2 months before burying him in the backyard.

I love that we’re now supposed to boo CJ Parker because he drives a fuel-efficient car and recycles.

That opening match is probably the best 6 Diva tag I’ve seen. Even Natalya looked great, especially when she used Sasha Banks’ head as a launching pad before dropkicking her in the face. The whole thing made sense as well, on Raw we just get random teams like the Bellas and Cameron, with Eva Marie looking lost on the outside.

I’m willing to be a little patient with Renee. You don’t get anywhere in that company if your character is “righteous feminist”. I think that’s who she is at heart, but she’s playing the game in the hopes it will get her to the big kids’ table. And if she does, I think there’s a big segment of the audience that will love “strong woman who takes no sh*t”.

promos are as important for matches to be memorable (either in a good or a bad way) as the in-ring action itself. matches with not much promos building up to them are forgettable to me, and that’s the worst. NXT ArRIVAL is soon after this, and build up was needed, and fully and perfectly excuted, to make it a show for the ages.

Admittedly, I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s quite a leap from “I’ll take my husband’s last name” to “men who don’t treat women like possessions are pussies” — the announcing on Raw is just, like, NEXT LEVEL bad..I don’t think it’s fair to lump Renee saying something during throw away banter with Alex Riley to her being The Worst.

Then again, I just love me some Renee..I’ll have to watch it. I don’t know why, but that part the report stuck out to me..otherwise, awesome!

I think Brandon was just talking about the background behind women taking men’s last names, and particularly that the practice was made when women were seen as little more than objects of trade. And she did say that men should “man up” which is where the pussy bit came from, because she was implying that men taking wive’s names would be womanly

God dammit Renee, and here I thought that a reasonable female voice might become a Raw announcer. She’s just parroting the same old shit, I bet she’s one of those women who says that she’s only friends with guys because girls are so catty. Thanks for calling her out